Bird's Eye View

Historical Fiction is one of my favourite genres, particularly when the stories include Canadian places and characters and their impact on history. 

Bird's Eye View is a reprinting of Canadian author Elinor Florence's 2014 book by the same name. In it, readers follow the life of Rose Jollife, a young woman from a Saskatchewan farming family who wants to do her part in WWII. She pays her own way and joins the Royal Air Force in England and is put to work in Intelligence as a photograph interpreter, interpreting aeriel photos taken by British spy planes to extract information against Nazi forces.

I've read a LOT of WWII Historical Fiction books and I appreciate how this author opened my eyes to a new aspect of the war. I loved learning about the aeriel interpreters and through Rose, we are also able to witness the impact of war for those who chose to fight - the isolation from family, new relationships made and the tension and terror they faced daily.

Rose was a complicated character. She was quite naive in some parts of her life, but I enjoyed seeing her confidence grow and how she used her knowledge she gained growing up on the Canadian prairies to assist in her wartime role. 

This was an interesting read that gave me a new perspective on the war. While I found it to be a bit bogged down in tertiary plots and descriptions of airplanes and flight plans, this is a very well researched book that has its poignant moments and smidge of satisfying serendipity that ultimately gives readers an interesting perspective of the importance of the roles women undertook during war. 

This is a good pick for fans of Genevieve Graham and Heather Marshall that gives readers a compelling story filled with love, loss, lots of gumption, hope and a bit of Canadian history too.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for the advanced trade paperback copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Elinor Florence

Genre: Historical Fiction

Type and Source: trade paperback from publisher

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: Nov 10, 2026

Read: Oct 4-9, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: In this groundbreaking work of historical fiction, a prairie girl eager to escape her family farm joins the war effort as an aerial photo interpreter and locates vital bomb targets while she grapples with her exhausting duties and a disastrous love affair. Rediscover the Canadian classic by the #1 bestselling author of Finding Flora.

Winning the war was everything…even if it meant losing herself.

Rose Jolliffe is an idealistic young woman living on her Saskatchewan family farm when the Second World War breaks out. Fired with patriotism and eager to escape her rural background, she joins the air force and works with Allied Intelligence in England as an aerial photographic interpreter. With her intimate knowledge of the natural landscape, Rose reveals an uncanny ability to spy on the enemy from the sky, identifying critical bomb targets.

But as the war drags on, Rose becomes disillusioned by the actions of her commanding officer, and despairs over the ongoing destruction witnessed each day through her magnifying glass. When caught in a London bombing raid, her world finally falls apart.

This meticulously researched novel, an instant bestseller, was the first ever to focus on a Canadian woman in uniform. Through the character of Rose Jolliffe, Elinor Florence honoured the wartime contributions of women, and charted Canada’s paralleled path to maturity and emergence from Britain’s long shadow.